I love family. I love learning. I love food. This is simply a collection of thoughts, memories, and recipes that are a piece of me!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Earth Day.

We have been finished with school for the year for a few weeks now, and it's been such a welcomed break.

Don't tell my kids that their teacher needs a summer break, too...

I had decided, however, that we would venture back into the world of homeschool today to celebrate Earth Day. My mom has always had so much fun with this day with her classes throughout the years, so I knew it could be a memorable day where the kids and I could learn a lot together.
Plus for a little extra awesome, today would mark the first day Izzy has really taken part in a school day activity!

First and foremost, I wanted to talk about why Earth Day is so important, so we read Psalm 24:1 together. We discussed the meaning, and talked about how this is the main reason we want to be good stewards of the world we live in.

Next, the kids painted pictures of the earth God made.

While Eva napped, the kids enjoyed movie time. They watched the Lorax. If you've never seen it, this is maybe the cutest movie I've ever seen dealing with over consumption and pollution. Okay, so it's for sure the cutest movie I've ever seen dealing with over consumption and pollution...

When their movie was over, I introduced our word of the day: conservation. We talked about how everything we have comes from the earth. Just like in the Lorax, if we don't conserve what God has created for us, the world would be a yucky place to live. We talked about how everything that we have and use originally came from something from the earth. Paper coming from trees really blew their little minds, so I found a youtube video where they could watch the entire process. They were super into it, and they both decided they didn't want to use paper anymore today to help save some trees.

Next, we took a nature walk in our own yard where the kids used chalkboards to draw pictures of things created by God and found in nature. They drew trees and flowers and even bugs.

We discussed how we can conserve energy by not turning on lights or by doing things that don't require electricity, so we spent the rest of our day playing games and doing things that we could do while we practiced conservation.

When it got dark, we lit candles and kept the electricity use to a minimum. We read Charlotte's Web by the light of glow sticks, and ended our day outside enjoying a lovely spring night.

Earth Day turned out to be such a wonderful day to hang out with my babies with little distractions while we praised the Creator for such a beautiful creation.